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Sunday, January 18, 2015

I had been taking pregnancy tests for a week or so leading up to the due date of my period and all were negative. I used the last test two days before my period was due and asked Garth to pick some more up even though I was convinced I wasn't pregnant. I took one (or five) tests the day my period was due and much to my surprise it was positive!

The first 12 weeks were pretty uneventful. I never really had morning sickness but just some nausea and exhaustion. We went to the appointment and had a sonogram, blood work, glucose test and answered and asked lots of questions. I made my next appointment and scheduled and appointment for the first trimester screening with the perinatologist. We we got home to shared with the girls that we were having a baby! They were both very excited!

The nurse from the OB called to let me know that my liver enzymes were off in my blood work and they wanted to redo the blood work in hopes of finding the liver enzymes were normal. After I had the blood work redone, the nurse called again to say that liver enzymes were still elevated and I need to see a gastroenterologist. We scheduled that appointment with lots of fear that something might be wrong with my liver.

At my first trimester screening we had another sonogram to check on the baby. The baby looked perfect! They did find a notching in the blood flow to my uterus which can an early indication that the baby might have inter uterine growth restriction or I might develop pre-eclampsia. That earned us growth ultrasounds every 6 weeks (after the 20 week ultrasound) to check growth and I was put on an aspirin a day.

When I was 12 weeks I had an ultrasound done of my liver, gallbladder and kidneys to check for any issues. The tech told me that I had 3 gallstones and a kidney stone. I figured that I had gallstones because I had been having pain for awhile. The kidney stone shocked me! After seeing the gastroenterologist he decided the gallstones were likely the reason for the elevated liver enzymes. Eventually my gallbladder will end to be removed.

The night before my 20 week ultrasound I slide down the stairs and the OB sent my to the hospital for monitoring. After a few hours in the monitor and an ultrasound everything checked out fine! We had planned on asking the ultrasound tech, at the 20 week ultrasound, to write down the gender and having a cake made so we could all find out together. But since we were at the hospital already the nurse wrote the gender on the ultrasound and put it in an envelope. When we got home, around 10pm, we woke the girls up and let Addy open the envelope and read it to us. It's a boy!!!!

The next morning we were so excited to go to the ultrasound. We couldn't wait to hear about our healthy boy. During the ultrasound the tech showed and talked to us about everything she was seeing. All seemed healthy and at the end she told us that the OB was going to talk to us about an echo-genic cardiac focus that she saw. When the OB came in he explained that usually an echo-genic cardiac focus was nothing but it was also a marker for trisomy disorders. Some of those disorders were not comparable with life. He referred us to the perinatologist for another ultrasound. We left in tears and immediately called to make an appointment. The first office said it would be weeks. Wait weeks to know if your baby was healthy...not going to work. Finally, we found a place that could see us the next day. We went home and cried lots and searched the internet. Trisomy 18, 19 and 21 (Down syndrome) were
all things that showed up. I believe falling down the stairs was a God
thing. I can't imagine the joy of finding out he was a boy being clouded
by the bad news. The girls got to experience the joy of finding out
without the tears that I shed for hours on end.

We got a lot of pictures of the baby!

We went to the appointment the next day (missing Em's Christmas
program). The tech asked us questions and did the ultrasound. There was a
big sign telling patients not to ask the tech questions about what they
were seeing...that was really hard. The doctor came in and asked
questions, called the nurse to check our 12 weeks screening results and
basically said he looks great...yes, we still see the focus but
everything else looks great! He said plenty of babies have these and
they are harmless, plenty of babies show no sign of Down's syndrome but
at birth you find out. We did some blood work to have a test run to see
if he had Down's syndrome. The blood test took my blood and separated
his chromosomes and mine and compared them. After the test we had to
wait 10 days for results. When we got the call I was at work and there
was one kid still waiting for the bus. I hesitated to answer because I
wasn't sure how I would handle the news. I quickly decided I needed to
find out. I answered and the nurse told me they couldn't separate our
chromosomes. She told me to come back in for another blood test. Did
that. Waited 10 days. Same phone call. She told me this happens to 5% of
people. 5%? Really? We decided to skip the blood test and wait until he
was born to know for sure that he didn't have Down's syndrome.

The pregnancy progressed great. We had ultrasounds every six weeks to check growth. My blood pressure continued to be fine.

A nice drink holder

Putting the crib together

Clementines were a favorite

Glucose test...I passed!

First load of baby boy clothes

Em snuggles

Car seat is ready to go

Learning how to take care of a baby

When
I was 34 weeks 6 days, Em and I were grocery shopping and I kept
feeling a tightness. It wasn't painful, my stomach just got tight. When
we were driving home I could sort of time them so I decided to call the
doctor. She suggested I go in to be monitored. I called Garth and he
came home. I called my moon and she watched the girls. Garth meet me at
the hospital and I was wheeled to L&D. I was hooked up to monitor
and for awhile the monitor was calm. Then the contractions started to
show up. I was given a shot of terbutaline to hopefully stop the
contractions. After I had the shot the contractions continued so I got
another shot. The contractions slowed but my blood pressure sky rocketed
so, we spent a few more hours hooked up to monitors and a blood
pressure cuff. Thankfully my blood pressure came down and the
contractions stayed away so, I was sent home with instructions to take
it easy for a few days. The next morning I had the tightness again and I
saw stars so I went back in to the hospital to check my blood pressure
and monitor for contractions. I had an internal exam done and nothing
had changed so we were sent home!

Easter Sunday

At
38 weeks 6 days I took Em to preschool and went to the mall to walk
around. The day was pretty normal. I felt a few weird pains that hurt
from my neck, down my back and to my knee.

Addy snuggles after school!

When Garth got home from work
I went upstairs to rest. As I was in bed, on my left side, I felt a
little pop but nothing happened so I didn't think much of it. Garth
called upstairs to say dinner was ready (hamburgers) so I got up and I
felt a small gush. Uh oh! I walked to the bathroom and felt another. I
walked down stairs to tell Garth. We called my mom and started getting
together. We had most things packed but ran around for last minute
things. Garth talked to the girls and told them what was happening. They
were super excited!

When we got
to the hospital we had to wait to be wheeled to Labor and Delivery.
When we got down there they made me go to triage to make sure my water
really broke. One nurse told another, this is her third kid I think she
knows if her water broke! And I was right it had broken. We got hooked
up and settled in to a room and waited. After and hour they let me walk
around. I think we made it around the floor once before the gushing
started again. Garth and I couldn't help but laugh but every time I
laughed more gushed. My flip flops made a slouching noises as I made my
way back to the room. There was a trail following me. Garth had a job of
going to let the nurses about our walk! We tried to rest for a while. I
got an epidural and we rested more. I would say around 4:30 am I was
fully dilated and they started to prep the room. I was much different
than my other births. It was very early morning. The hospital was quiet.
It was very surreal. Once I started pushing monitor was losing the
babies heart rate. I didn't really feel the contractions or the need to
push. There were longer periods of time between contractions, they
turned down my epidural and searched the the heartbeat. The doctor told
me that I needed to get the baby out and I needed to push. She talked
about having to help by making room for the baby to move down by
cutting. With the next contraction, the baby was born at 4:59 am. He had
the cord around his neck, but once out they said he looked great and
was perfectly healthy! We were in the hospital for 36 hours after he was
born and at about 34 hours old he was named Rowan William!

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About Me

Lauren

When we moved into our house we painted, replaced some carpet, hung a few pictures and then life started. We recently decided it was time to work towards a better life for our family. We are two working parents to two amazing girls. Life is crazy but we are trying to sit down to more dinners, organize so everything has a place, play more, and enjoy the life we have been blessed with!